Abstract

In contrast to the poor plasticity that is usually observed in bulk metallic glasses, super plasticity is achieved at room temperature in ZrCuNiAl synthesized through the appropriate choice of its composition by controlling elastic moduli. Microstructures analysis indicates that the super plastic bulk metallic glasses are composed of hard regions surrounded by soft regions, which enable the glasses to undergo true strain of more than 160%. This finding is suggestive of a solution to the problem of brittleness in, and has implications for understanding the deformation mechanism of, metallic glasses.